TY - JOUR A1 - Römmele, Andrea A1 - Gibson, Rachel A1 - Williamson, Andy T1 - Chasing the Digital Wave: International Perspectives on Growth of Online Campaigning JF - Journal of Information Technology and Politics N2 - In this series of articles we present new insight into the drivers, quality, and impact of web campaigning up to date by reflecting on the uptake, maturity, and impact of internet campaigning in elections around the world. Specifically, we use the contributions to address four key topics that have been addressed by the web campaigns literature since its origins. First, diffusion and how widespread web campaigning has become; second, the issue of normalization and how far web campaigns favour the already powerful and well resourced; third, we discuss whether campaign style is changing and becoming more interactive and participatory as a result of the new digital technology; finally, we provide new evidence on the question of voter mobilization and the extent to which the web appears to be a voter generator for political parties and candidates. While answers vary according to context it is clear that web campaigning is common practice in democratic elections, although the U.S. retains its leading role for innovation and experimentation. The bigger players still dominate but social media platforms appear to be a more equal playing field. Opportunities for interaction and participation remain under-used, which is even more of an oversight by parties given that it does web campaigns do appear linked to stronger voter support. KW - Elections KW - E-mail KW - Internet KW - Parties KW - Web campaigning Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2014.903064 SN - 1933-1681 VL - 11 IS - 2 SP - 123 EP - 129 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Römmele, Andrea A1 - Gibson, Rachel K. A1 - Ward, Stephen T1 - German Parties and Internet Campaigning in the 2002 Federal Election JF - German Politics N2 - This article examines German national parties’ use of the Internet in the 2002 federal election. Its main goals are to determine what the parties were doing in their online campaigns and how far their use of the Internet can be understood in terms of two party-specific variables – organisational size and primary goal. These questions are of significance given the relatively limited study of parties’ use of the net in Germany in the comparative literature on this topic. Also, research on parties’ use of the Web across countries has suggested that while context does produce differences in approach, party-specific factors also play a major role in determining online strategy. The article attempts to investigate these questions systematically by examining nine German parties’ use of the Internet (specifically websites, e-mail, and intra-nets) using questionnaire data from national party personnel and content analysis of web pages. Our findings show that while the divide between major and minor parties can be seen quite clearly in the German context in terms of website quality and visibility, evidence to support the impact of party outlook in shaping parties’ online strategy can also be found. In addition, the study reveals that major parties are now beginning to take the Internet very seriously as a communication tool, particularly in terms of election campaigning. Y1 - 2003 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/09644000412331307534 SN - 1743-8993 VL - 12 IS - 1 SP - 79 EP - 108 PB - Routledge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Römmele, Andrea A1 - Gibson, Rachel K. T1 - Changing Campaign Communications: A Party-Centered Theory of Professionalized Campaigning JF - The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics N2 - Models explaining the rise of American-style or so-called postmodern campaigning have focused primarily on changes taking place at the systemic level. While these models help explain variance across countries where these techniques are used, they do not explain variations among individual parties. Given that not all parties adopt these tactics and techniques at the same time, the authors argue that there are party-specific variables that need to be taken into account when understanding the shift to the new campaigning era. Building on the existing literature, the authors identify the key traits of what they term professionalized campaigning and the variables that prime a party to adopt it. The article goes on to develop a causal model, based on external and internal party events or shocks, that explains why a particular party would embrace this new style of campaigning. Finally, the authors operationalize their theory and develop indicators to measure the key variables for empirical testing. Y1 - 2001 SN - 1531-328X VL - 6 IS - 4 SP - 31 EP - 43 PB - SAGE Publications ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Römmele, Andrea A1 - Gibson, Rachel K. T1 - Measuring the Professionalization of Political Campaigning JF - Party Politics N2 - This article develops and tests a new multidimensional index — CAMPROF — that is designed to measure and compare parties' use of professionalized campaign techniques during elections. Based on the extant literature, we identify and operationalize the essential components of this new form of campaigning to create a 30-point index that is applied to the case of the 2005 German federal election. The results show the CAMPROF Index to be: (1) successful in capturing variance in parties' engagement in professionalized campaigning, and (2) capable of producing rankings that correspond to a priori expectations about how well the parties would perform. The findings are significant in that they provide preliminary confirmation of the Index's capacity to measure the concept of professionalized campaigning as well as providing new insights into the party-level dynamics that may be driving the current wave of campaign modernization. The opportunities and challenges involved in wider application of the measure to cross-national research are discussed. KW - Campaigns KW - Comparative KW - Methodology KW - Parties KW - Professionalization Y1 - 2009 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068809102245 SN - 1354-0688 VL - 15 IS - 3 SP - 265 EP - 293 PB - SAGE Publications CY - Los Angeles [u.a.] ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Römmele, Andrea A1 - Gibson, Rachel K. T1 - Political Communication T2 - Comparative Politics Y1 - 2008 SP - 473 EP - 492 PB - Oxford University Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Römmele, Andrea A1 - Gibson, Rachel K. T1 - "Down Periscope": The Search for High-Tech Campaigning at the Local Level in the 2002 German Federal Election JF - Journal of E-Government N2 - This paper examines the growth of high-tech campaigning techniques among local level actors in Germany by studying website adoption among parties and candidates in the 2002 federal election. Arguing that election websites form a key tool of the new high-tech campaign trade we investigate the extent of their use at the local level as well as some of the triggers to their uptake and possible longer-term effects on campaign style, in terms of interactivity and independence from central party control. Our findings reveal that this form of high-tech campaigning is prominent across Germany and is promoted by factors linked to higher levels of local campaign activity more generally, i.e., party resources, competition and incumbency. Content analysis of sites, however, reveals little support for the notion that election websites are introducing a more participatory style of campaigning. Also, while some parties appear to be inclined toward controlling local actors' message through the medium, for the most part, candidates and parties appear to be left alone to develop their online profile. KW - Web campaigning KW - Cyber campaigning KW - High-tech campaigning KW - Germany KW - Local elections KW - Parties Y1 - 2006 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1300/J399v02n03_05 SN - 1542-4049 VL - 2 IS - 3 SP - 85 EP - 109 PB - Routledge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Römmele, Andrea A1 - Gibson, Rachel K. T1 - Truth and Consequence in Web-Campaigning: Is There an Academic Digital Divide? JF - European Political Science N2 - Use of the web by political parties and candidates as well as the general public is expanding. However, so far, little serious systematic analysis has taken place to examine the spread of the practice and particularly its consequences for electoral outcomes and voter attitudes. In this article, we identify some of the key reasons for the lack of attention to the ‘cause-and-effect’ questions about Web campaigning and highlight the empirical and theoretical reasons why academic study needs to do more to incorporate it into conventional election studies. We conclude by offering some guidelines for developing the tools and data that are needed for more ‘joined-up’ study of the subject to take place. KW - Internet KW - Campaigning KW - World wide web KW - Elections KW - Voting behaviour Y1 - 2005 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.eps.2210036 SN - 1682-0983 VL - 4 IS - 3 SP - 273 EP - 287 PB - Palgrave Macmillan UK ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Römmele, Andrea A1 - Gibson, Rachel K. A1 - Lusoli, Wainer A1 - Ward, Stephen T1 - Representative Democracy and the Internet T2 - Electronic Democracy? Mobilisation, Participation and Organisation via new ICTs Y1 - 2004 SP - 5 EP - 27 PB - Routledge CY - London ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Römmele, Andrea A1 - Gibson, Rachel K. A1 - Ward, Stephen T1 - The Future for Representative Democracy in the Digital Age T2 - Electronic Democracy? Mobilisation, Participation and Organisation via new ICTs Y1 - 2004 SP - 310 EP - 315 PB - Routledge CY - London ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Römmele, Andrea A1 - Jucknat, Kim A1 - Gibson, Rachel K. T1 - Professionalisierte Kampagnenführung: Eine systematische Messung T2 - Wahlen und Wähler: Analysen aus Anlass der Bundestagswahl 2005 Y1 - 2009 SN - 978-3-531-91666-8 SP - 457 EP - 483 PB - Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften CY - Wiesbaden ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gibson, Rachel A1 - Bon, Esmeralda A1 - Römmele, Andrea T1 - Operationalizing data-driven campaigning: designing a new tool for mapping and guiding regulatory intervention JF - Policy Studies N2 - Since the Cambridge Analytica scandal, governments are increasingly concerned about the way in which citizens’ personal data are collected, processed and used during election campaigns To develop the appropriate tools for monitoring and controlling this new mode of “data-driven campaigning” (DDC) regulators require a clear understanding of the practices involved. This paper provides a first step toward that goal by proposing a new organizational and process-centred operational definition of DDC from which we derive a set of empirical indicators. The indicators are applied to the policy environment of a leading government in this domain – the European Union (EU) – to generate a descriptive “heat map” of current regulatory activity toward DDC. Based on the results of this exercise, we argue that regulation is likely to intensify on existing practices and extend to cover current “cold spots”. Drawing on models of internet governance, we argue that this expansion is likely to occur in one of two ways. A “kaleidoscopic” approach, in which current legislation extends to absorb DDC practices and a more “designed” approach that involves more active intervention by elites, and ultimately the generation of a new regulatory regime. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/01442872.2023.2259333 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gibson, Rachel A1 - Bon, Esmeralda A1 - Darius, Philipp A1 - Smyth, Peter T1 - Are Online Political Influencers Accelerating Democratic Deconsolidation? JF - Media and Communication N2 - Social media campaigning is increasingly linked with anti-democratic outcomes, with concerns to date centring on paid adverts, rather than organic content produced by a new set of online political influencers. This study systematically compares voter exposure to these new campaign actors with candidate-sponsored ads, as well as established and alternative news sources during the US 2020 presidential election. Specifically, we examine how far higher exposure to these sources is linked with key trends identified in the democratic deconsolidation thesis. We use data from a national YouGov survey designed to measure digital campaign exposure to test our hypotheses. Findings show that while higher exposure to online political influencers is linked to more extremist opinions, followers are not disengaging from conventional politics. Exposure to paid political ads, however, is confirmed as a potential source of growing distrust in political institutions. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v11i3.6813 SN - 2183-2439 VL - 11 IS - 3 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Römmele, Andrea A1 - Gibson, Rachel ED - Gil de Zúñiga, Homero T1 - Scientific and subversive: The two faces of the fourth era of political campaigning JF - New Media & Society N2 - This article sets out the case that democracies are now entering a fourth phase of “data-driven” political campaigning. Building on the existing campaigns literature, we identify several key shifts in practice that define the new phase, namely: (1) an organizational and strategic dependency on digital technology and “big data,” (2) a reliance on networked communication, (3) the individualized micro-targeting of campaign messages, and (4) the internationalization of the campaign sphere. Departing from prior studies, we also argue that the new phase is distinguished, by a bifurcation, into two variants—the scientific and the subversive. While sharing a common core, these two modes differ, in that the former retains a commitment to the normative goals of campaigning, that is, to mobilize and inform voters, while the latter explicitly rejects and subverts these aims, focusing instead on demobilization and the spread of misinformation. Both are presented as abstract or “ideal” types, although we do point out how features of each have appeared in recent election campaigns by mainstream and populist parties. We conclude by discussing the implications of these trends for the long-term future health of democracy. KW - - KW - Big data KW - campaigns KW - populism KW - social media Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819893979 SN - 1461-4448 SN - 1461-7315 VL - 22 IS - 4 SP - 595 EP - 610 PB - SAGE Publications CY - Sage UK: London, England ER -